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Edited on Wed Feb-17-10 07:34 PM by PCIntern
and the contents are inexorably headed for the large drain. Many patients over the thirty-plus years have related a story to me which goes like this: the raging stomach flu awakened them in the middle of the night and they half-ran to the toilet into which they vomited what was left of their dinner followed by lots of dry heaves. The awful smell combined with the psychological need to get this material out of the room compelled them to immediately flush the toilet.
Upon returning to bed, after he or she catches the breaths back, the wonderment begins: did I remember to remove my dentures before I threw up? A careful checking of the nightstand, the bedclothes, and the bathroom reveals that the prostheses are headed for the street along with the chicken soup and meat loaf.
Thus are embarrassing, but often-told stories, born.
By way of juxtaposition: tonight I ran out for a (delicious) cheeseburger deluxe with lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and french fries, and a regular fountain Coke - I do this once every two weeks to satiate my inner gluttony, and I'm reading Rolling Stone magazine at the counter of the restaurant at 17th and Chancellor Streets here in Philly. and it couldn't be more depressing: how the entire political Universe is conspiring to allow global warming to inexorably occur, that, in fact, it's really a done deal. That mechanisms have been put into motion which have savaged the Earth and it's no longer hypothetical. I, for one, firmly believe that tis is all true.
And then it came over me like a tidal wave: it may be too late in every other respect as well. I'm not by nature a complete cynic, but the obvious control over very nuance of our lives by Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Technology, Big Everything, is virtually complete. Hell, I have patients buying Tom's of Maine toothpaste because they think it will help the environment. I treat, and am actually quite friendly with, those people who work in the Government Relations offices of several of the enormous pharmaceutical companies which lie all around Philadelphia. The inertia is all on their side...to quote a famous old TV show: (they) control the horizontal, (they) control the vertical, (they) can make the image blur...or sharpen it to crystal clarity.
More than fifty years ago, the rate of change of control began to increase exponentially...yes, the Barons always were in charge, but if they controlled 85%, they were looking for the last 15% and some have seen it coming, and warning us, perhaps beginning with the guilty admission of President Eisenhower in his Farewell Address, and then of course, to the "radical" left-wing publications such as A Minority Of One, and to some extent, The Nation, and in an earlier incarnation, The New Republic. Brilliant and innovative essays from bygone eras are lost forever in the mass of blogs and jargon-tossing which pervade our minds and psyches. I was a product of this era, and due to my upbringing, will never abandon my precepts. I fear for this generation of HDTV, iPods, PC's/Macs, and Virtual Everything else, including dating and Internet pornography, whose use is beyond comprehension and quite frankly, reducing the quality of sociability among the young. (Note: I am NOT advocating Internet censorship, I am merely stating that I think it's overload...we had a 'dirty' pack of playing cards...these kids have untold hours of 'home movies'.)
So we must continue the fight I suppose, but WOW, is it gonna be a tough battle...we need to stay focused and, as the RWers do, stay in this for the 'long haul'. The bowl has not yet been flushed - we're still 'in there' struggling...first, check for your prostheses...got 'em? Good.
Now do what you have to do.
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